Vacation

Lainey was off track so we decided to head down south for a few days. We left early Thursday morning. We stopped at Cove Fort. The kids liked seeing the old stuff. I think they liked going up the stair to the look out spot above.



We got back int he car and after a few more stops we made it to Grandma Sherelle's house. We spent the evening, hiking around her property meeting the animals and having dinner with Grandma and Roger.

We then got back in the car and headed into St. George to our hotel.

We got up Friday morning and got ready for the day. We went to the Rosenbrach Wildlife Museum. It was ok, but we were all a little creeped out by some of the animals.

Our favorite part was the bug display.

We then went back to the hotel and swam in the pool, that is what the kids had been begging to do since we got there. After swimming we went back to the room and got ready to head over to our friends house. Along the way we stopped and did a little shopping on our way. We had dinner with friends from our apartment days. They have 2 daughters the same age as ours and they had a blast together! Lance and I enjoyed visiting with our friends. Saturday morning we got up and got ready to go hiking in Kolob Canyon, unfortunately Gordie got a little sick on the way :( he threw up in the car and we decided that hiking wasn't a good idea. We hung out at Grandmas house and Gordie seemed to be better so we decided to go to the Apple Festival in New Harmony. The kids had a blast.

They made corn husk dolls and Lance even competed and won a pie eating contest.


We had an great day spending more time with Grandma and just being together as a family. Whe got back in the car and headed out, but we didnt make it very far before Gordie started throwing up again. Poor guy. The car ride home wasnt too bad the girls kept themselves occupied embroidering and Gordie managed not to throw up anymore :) All in all we had a great time and came to the conclusion that it isnt about what we do on vacation it is about being together as a family and making the journey part of the fun! Even with car troubles :)

Bubble Wrap and Confessions

So I have to admit that I have been cheating on my blog with my new blog. There, that being said I am going to try to get at least one post on here for every post or two on Homemaker is not a "Dirty" word! So we have been watching my nephew a lot lately and he fits right into our routine and he is really easy to watch. Lance brought home a huge box filled with bubble wrap. The kids went nuts! Here is the video. Hopefully there will be more posts :)

Our World in a Minute :)

It is that time of year again in our household where we are just so busy! We have been out doing this and that, and trying to spend as much time together as possible! So here are a few pictures to show you whats been going on.......

Belgium Pancakes on the 4th of July

Cub Camp

Pioneer Trek

Stick Pulling

This is the Place on the 24th

First Day of School !st Grade

Black Eyes

Waterfalls/Hiking

And Family Reunions

Coming up this week we have Trevor's Birthday dinner,Trevor and Cedes Wedding, Gordie's 2nd birthday, and Girls Camp. Hopefully we survive it all!

Hola Senorita

Not all 22 month olds can grow one of these babies.

Yeah Yeah, I know...

It has been a while since we posted and things have changed a lot around here lately. I was just called as Young Women President, and we are adjusting to that, Lilly graduated from preschool (we forgot the camera), the girls had their dance concert, Lainey had her school choir concert. Lainey still has about a month left of school, then 3 weeks off then it is back to 1st grade. So that in a nutshell is what is going on around here.

SCOUT-O-RAMA!!

So many moons ago I was a little Cub Scout. Each year we would work in a booth at Scout-O-Rama for a little bit and then check out all the other booths with my family. To say I had a good time, or even a blast, would be an understatement.

When I was called as a Cubmaster two years ago I was reading and read about Scout-O-Rama. How could have forgotten this great momentous event that happens every year I thought. Well, I haven't missed one since. I even did a booth myself last year.

Now my children are hooked, they have been asking ever since last year's Scout-O-Rama when it would happen again. Last Saturday it came.

I didn't do a booth this year, because I was trying to get the boys in my pack to come and check this place out. I had planned on bringing them myself. Turned out those that could go actually went with their families, which is the best way to do this thing.

The Highway Patrol always comes and helps the kids learn the importance of seat belts. Lainey and Lilly were very excited to try it.

We were there for nearly the whole day. Cari actually sent a text near the end asking if we had all run away with the scouts.

The pictures just don't do it justice.

The girls loved the Haka dance performed by a Polynesian troop and a fire dance performed by a scout. The magician (also named Lance) was a big hit too. Lainey wanted to stop at every booth.

One of those Moments

The more we shelter children from every disappointment, the more devastating future disappointments will be.

FRED G. GOSMAN, How to Be a Happy Parent ... In Spite of Your Children

I had a moment as a parent today, that not only broke my heart but made me glad also. My dear sweet Lainey loves to sing! She has been involved with her school's melody choir all year. It is a free after school program. To say she loves it is an understatement. She practices all the time singing her songs and working on the actions. We have been excitedly looking forward to her end of year performance. Lainey also loves to Dance! She has been taking classes since she was 3 and looks forward every week to dance day.

As we are ending the year with her dance concert coming we realized that her mandidtory dress rehearsal for dance was on the same night as her choir concert. I noticed this problem about 2 weeks ago, but hoped we could work something out. I didn't mention it to her because I was hoping we could make it to both on the same night. When I realized it just wasn't possible. I laid it out to her plainly. If she missed dress rehearsal she couldn't perform in her dance concert (which we do pay for), or she would have to miss her choir concert. I gave the decision to her. I expected tears, but was utterly amazed at her response. After thinking about it for a few minutes she made her decision. She has decided to do her dance performance. While she didn't cry I could hear the emotion in her voice about not singing. It broke my heart to make her have to choose, but she was brave and made the decision. She knows that she can still be in the choir next year and will hopefully get to perform there too. I

Sometimes life is hard, we are faced with decisions everyday, some are easy some are hard, but the hardest ones are the ones when we have to choose between to really good things. She has made her choice and I am so proud of her for her courage. WE LOVE YOU LAINEY! I am so pleased to be your mom.

Can you guess Who????

These pictures are of all my babies at 4 months old. Can you tell which one is which? Maybe it is easier than I think but give it a guess.

HUH???????

So normally we put ourselves in Doctors and pharmacists hands trusting that these people who have gone to school for nearly a decade, 1: are very smart, after all they had to make it through all that schooling. 2: That they have to use a lot of common sense. Majority of the time this is the case. While I trust my Doctor very much, and we all make mistakes sometimes I wonder......

Here is a true story that happened to me just this week:

I have been on some medication that totally dries out my skin for several months, this causes my eczema to go berserk! So I usually use a prescription strength Cortizone cream for this. I was out so I asked my Doc, to give me a new one. He said no problem and wrote out the rx. I went to fill the rx and the pharmacist looked at it and said, "There is a problem, the thing the doc wrote the rx for doesn't exist." They needed to check on it before they could fill it. I said ok. I left and came back 2 days later. They told me that they had it sorted out but they were out of stock, and it would be in later today. I left a little frustrated but ya know things like this happen...... Later tonight I went back to pick up the prescription. They had gotten it and it was ready. I got to the car and opened it. This is what I found.

Typically 0.5% is normal, 1.0% is extra strength and 2.5% is prescription strength.
So 3 trips to Target, and a 3 day wait to get minimum strength cortizone cream, that I paid more for than if I had just grabbed the Target brand sitting on the shelf 3 feet away from the pharmacy.

If you made it to the end of this, I thank you for listening to my rant!

What about Gordon?

If you scroll down (if we have any readers left). You will see multiple posts about Lainey, Lilly, food and family activities but nothing about Gordie. So here is a post about our little man.

He has been getting back to back ear infections that seem to be resistant to the antibiotics. Not a fun thing. We were going to the Pediatrician office like once a month. Well this last time the doctor used the "tube" word. So off to the ENT on Tuesday we went. They looked in his ears and indeed he needed tubes. When we went to schedule the surgery they gave us 2 dates, 1 at the end of April and 1 in that was Thursday. Like as in 2 days. We decided that now was a good time and said go ahead and schedule it.

Thursday came very quickly and off we went to the hospital. We got checked in and taken to our room. Gordie wasn't happy about the hospital gown, but with distraction of a white board and marker we managed to keep it on him. They came in and gave him some meds that would make him a little loopy and forget what was going on. Before it kicked in he amazed the nurses with his fine motor skills.

They brought him back and told us the fluid in his ears was the consistancy of rubber cement. He didnt say that was unusual but the way he said it made it seem to me like it was. Any who, after about 10-15 minutes with us he was ready to go home and letting everyone in post-op know it.

By the time we got home you would have thought that nothing had happened and that it was just a normal day! He even got to go hunt Easter Eggs at his Aunt Ashley's house.

NOTHING SLOWS THIS BOY DOWN!!

Happy Easter

They are multiplying like rabbits!!

Happy Easter to all, may you feel the love of our Savior and remember his atoning sacrifice today!

Love,
Lance, Cari, Lainey, Lilly, and Gordon.

Monday Monday

It just occured to me why I have been cranky today. It is Monday! Well at least I can blame it on that right? We had a yummy dinner of Chicken Verde Burritos and Corn fritters. As mentioned before I am not a photographer.

Then for FHE we colored Easter eggs.

Please excuse the blurry photos the kids wouldn't hold still!

Easter Sunday?

So because next week is General Conference, we had our Easter program in church this week. So we all got to wear our new Easter dress clothes. I must say I did pretty well this year. The kids looked great and Lance and I did too. Here are some pick of us all gussied up before church. Gordon wouldn't leave his hat on, but I kinda figured he wouldn't.

This was the only one where they were all somewhat looking at the camera.
Lance coordinated with the girls.

I coordinated with the Monkey.

Gordon deciding to heck with this I'm outta here!